From 1986 to 1989 Morrison was the Athletic Director for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos' 21-sport program, helped raise significant funds annually for UCSB Athletics and served on the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament Committee. He was the athletic director at UC Riverside for 12 years until his retirement on August 15, 2011.

In 1962, Morrison returned to UC Berkeley to be a graduate assistant on Rene Herrerias's staff.[4] The following year, Morrison became varsity coach at El Camino High School in Sacramento, California.[5] While coaching at El Camino, Morrison pursued a master's degree in physical education at Sacramento State College. Morrison received his master's in 1966, with the thesis The advantages and disadvantages in raising the height of the goal in basketball from ten feet to twelve feet.[6]

After getting his master's degree, Morrison became an assistant coach at San Jose State under Dan Glines.[7] Morrison recruited Darnell Hillman to San Jose State in 1967; Hillman would eventually play in the NBA.[8] Morrison then moved to USC as an assistant coach under Bob Boyd.[7] USC finished the 1970–71 season 24–2 and ranked #5 by the AP.[9]

Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble were recruited to USC by Morrison and his top assistant, David Spencer. They were joined by high school All-American, Tom Lewis, and Rich Grande as the "Four Freshmen" star recruiting class.[11][12] Following an 11-17 season coaching USC, Morrison and Spencer were fired after the 1985-86 season was over, despite winning the Pac-10 the previous year. It was reported that the players would not remain unless certain conditions were met, including having a say in the next coaching staff.[11] USC hired George Raveling in March 1986 as the next head coach of the Trojans.[13] Raveling gave the players a deadline to respond whether they would remain on the team. When they did not respond, he revoked the scholarships of Gathers, Kimble, and Lewis.[14] Raveling's controversial[15] statement was, "You can't let the Indians run the reservation," he said. "You've got to be strong, too. Sometimes you have to tell them that they have to exit."[11] Kimble and Gathers transferred together from USC to Loyola Marymount. Lewis transferred to Pepperdine. Grande remained at USC.

Morrison returned to San Jose State to be head coach in 1989.[7][16] Morrison inherited a team that went 5–21 under coach Bill Berry and had 10 players quit the team over accusations of verbal and physical abuse against Berry.[7] In Morrison's first season, San Jose State went 8–20 in 1989–90 then finished the 1990–91 season 7–20.[10] Following the 1990–91 season, Morrison dismissed four players from the team after they were arrested for stealing a student assistant's credit card.[17][18]